DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOLAR TREE FOR DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS

Flat or roof top mountings of PV systems require large area or land. Scarcity of land is greatest problem in cities and even in villages in India. Solar Power Tree provides better alternative to flat mounting of PV systems. For domestic lighting and other applications use of Solar Tree is more relevant when PV system is to be used. In this article load or energy requirement of small house in India is estimated to 1.75kWhr/day. All the calculations are done considering solar radiation data at Kolhapur, Maharashtra (16.760). The load capacities or sizes of all other components of system are determined. Tracking system can be easily employed in Solar Tree hence its performance is better than flat mountings of solar PV system. The overall cost can be reduced using simple and innovative designs of Solar Tree. The total cost of Solar Tree is about Rs.60000 /- and payback period is estimated to 10 years.